


Light Arc

by traptrixnepenthes



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: M/M, sometimes you just gotta think about wings homie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28368834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traptrixnepenthes/pseuds/traptrixnepenthes
Summary: a sketch about genis thinking about mithos's wings, but mostly about mithos.
Relationships: Genis Sage/Mithos Yggdrasill
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Light Arc

Unlike the rest of the angels on Derris-Kharlan, Mithos didn’t really use his wings very often. Exceptions were for when he wanted to reach a book or something on a higher shelf, and then the wings would extend from his back so naturally it was like they’d always been there in the first place. They were multicolored planes of light, more reminiscent of feathers than even featherlike, and they sparkled and glowed brighter than any of the other lights in Vinheim. Genis had never voiced the thought, but they were beautiful--whenever Mithos did something like this, using his wings for something stupid and utilitarian like pulling a book off a shelf, he always stopped and stared.

Like right now, for instance. Mithos was hovering in front of the bookcase, examining the spines on the books on the second shelf from the top, his wings moving lazily but still somehow keeping him aloft. He could understand how the other angels’ wings kept them in the air, since they basically just looked like bird wings and he knew all about those, but Mithos’s wings weren’t even directly attached to his back; obviously they were magical, but even magic could only explain so much. Genis didn’t want wings himself, he wasn’t exactly prepared for that kind of commitment, but he still wanted to know more about them, about how they kept Mithos in the air, why they shined the way they did…

With a small grunt of effort, Mithos pried the book he was looking for out of the shelf--Genis noted in his mind to try and help him organize all his libraries at some point, since his shelves were all so tightly-packed it was almost impossible to pull things out--and then he floated back down to the floor, stopping a moment just above the ground and then alighting. It was fascinating to watch, frankly; Colette had never been so elegant in her flight, and that was completely separate from what a klutz she was. She’d always moved a little bit jerkily, still getting used to her wings and new capability for flight, but Mithos had thousands of years of practice. It was like watching him use any other limb, and it was fascinating in a way that watching Colette use her wings never had been.

He’d watched this little pattern before, and Mithos’s wings always lifted up a little bit before he put them away, and he watched them tilt up that bit now, but unlike every other time where he watched those wings vanish into nothing, he said something. “Um, Mithos?”

Mithos paused before his wings were gone, which was good, and then turned to Genis. One thing that hadn’t changed was his gentle smile. “What is it, Genis?”

“Can I, um…” He hadn’t actually thought about where to go from there before speaking. Really, he just wanted to be able to look at Mithos’s wings a bit longer, but that felt too embarrassing to actually say out loud. “Can I touch your wings?”

Mithos blinked. “Sure, I guess.” He flapped them once, and then extended them out a bit farther than he normally did. “I’m not actually sure you’ll be able to, but I’ve never tried myself, so…”

“Really? I’ve always been curious.” Genis stepped a bit closer, marveling again at the wings. There were six tiers, each one a different color, and that seemed to be unique among angels.

“Well… Different priorities, I guess.”

Genis had been reaching out to touch one of the tiers, the purple one second from the top, but at that he hesitated. The Cruxis Crystals--no, the High Exspheres were a technology developed during the Kharlan War meant to create effective super soldiers. If you didn’t need to sleep, or eat, couldn’t feel pain, and couldn’t die except by a fatal wound, then that just meant you were that much more efficient for war. Giving up your emotions if you couldn’t control it was just a nasty little side effect.

Was it right for something so horrible to create something this beautiful? Was it okay to want to touch it, even knowing the real reason why Mithos became an angel in the first place?

Mithos looked over his shoulder at Genis, who was still standing there with a hand halfway outstretched. “Well? Did you touch it yet?”

“Ah, no. Sorry.” He was going to finish reaching out, but couldn’t bring himself to, suddenly. “Is it really okay if I do?”

“You’d know if I didn’t want you to.” Genis...supposed that was true.

So he pressed his fingers against the just-reminiscent-of-a-feather wing. It definitely had _substance_ _,_ which Genis hadn’t quite been expecting, and it felt a bit electrified, giving him the same almost-uncomfortable heat and pressure he felt when he used lightning magic, like a low-volt current was running through him. They had substance, but weren’t exactly solid; it felt more like pressing his fingers against a very firm jelly, which combined with the voltage, made for a rather strange experience.

The wings shivered a bit under his fingers. “That’s...weird,” Mithos said rather plainly. “I can feel my wings for the first time ever now, but only where you’re touching.”

“Oh!” Genis jerked his hand back, and the electric feeling left, too. The wings were probably something like pure refined mana, which definitely would’ve explained the jolts. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it didn’t hurt or anything like that. It was just...weird.” Genis wished Mithos would show a bit more emotion in his voice and in his expressions. He trusted Mithos to express it if he was doing something wrong or when he was happy, but outside that, he didn’t emote almost at all. “Urgh. Now it’s like there’s a phantom touch there, right where I’ve never had one before. Weird.”

Mithos flapped his wings a little, looking a bit annoyed, which Genis supposed was a good thing. He reached out again to touch the same section, sliding his fingers along the edge, and Mithos’s wings stilled. “It’s kind of weird to touch, too. It sort of feels like I’m being electrocuted.”

“What?” That wasn’t the right way to have put it, apparently, because Mithos immediately tucked his wings away after that and spun around to face him. “Are you okay? It didn’t hurt you, did it?”

“No! No, I’m fine. It was just a small kind of electrocuted.”

“...That’s still not good, you know.” But Mithos smiled, so Genis supposed that meant things were fine. “You’re really okay?”

“I am! Promise.”

There was something oddly bittersweet about Mithos worrying about him like that. It was the same way he’d worried about him before...Genis had found out that Mithos and Yggdrasill were the same person, but it was that discovery that had made it so weird. As Yggdrasill, Mithos had tried to kill him before, but he’d also protected him. As Mithos, he had protected everyone on the team with the leftover magic in his flute, but he’d also been lying to them the whole time. And now that Genis knew everything, about all the lies and about how many people Mithos had hurt and about why he’d hurt people in the first place, and most of all about how despite all of that Mithos had never really wanted to hurt anyone at all, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself.

Well, of course, apparently the answer was stay with him in his libraries and read with him, and think about touching his wings. Gentle but electrifying--that was a good way to describe Mithos, too.

He didn’t know how long their days were going to last like this, in Vinheim’s darkness as they simply stayed side by side, but Genis supposed that as long as he got to be with Mithos, it was fine.

“So what book did you pull down?”


End file.
